Well, this Saturday Vancouver will get a dose of bass delivered by none other than Justin Martin at Electric Owl (http://www.intimateproductions.com/e/437) brought to you by Intimate Productions of course! The opening DJs Abasi and Ryan Wells have put together mixes for you to listen to and get warmed up for this party. This is also Abasi’s submission to the Basscoast Music Festival for 2013 (http://www.basscoast.ca/). Click away, crank it up, and enjoy, and see you on Saturday @ Electric Owl!

Abasi : What U Gonna Do (with Bass)

Ryan Wells : Spotted MixTape:

In general, I love discovering origins of where things come from, specially when it comes to music. When I first got my copy of Miss Kittin & The Hacker’s “The Beach” back about 6 years ago, and proceeded to fall in love, include it on my Nudisorder mix and play it over and over, I always thought they had either sampled or recreated parts of The Human League‘s “Don’t you want me“. Of course, right? Yesterday, Pig Radio was playing at my house (not Daft Punk), and I thought “The Beach” had come on. Then about a few seconds into it I realized the radio was playing something that had the same bits, but was not the same song. Yup, they were playing Gary Low’s 1983 song, “I want you“, and definitely not Human League’s “Don’t you want me”.

After hearing this, I thought “I want you” was probably the song that Human League also used for their hit, so I did some Googling. Well, not much turned up on the subject, so I am going to concluded that since “Don’t you want me” came out in 1981, and since Human League are in a totally different league that our beloved 80s Italo one-hit wonder, then Gary used “Don’t you want me” for his song, which in turn MK&TH sampled for “The Beach”.

“The sun is shining tonight, the sun, the moon, the city lights… I can’t remember where I am, it could be Cannes, St. Tropez or Tahiti… give me some oil, I like to be greasy and tanned, sand in my hair… I forgot my sunglasses. Oh, we should send a postcard to the label, it must be freezing in Munich right now… One more thing, my glass of Martini dry is empty; more ice next time. I hope there is new stuff from Detroit at the record shop when I’m back.” Yup, there you have it. Enjoy, happy new year, and all the best in 2012!

Well, it has already been a couple of weeks but I think everybody is still reeling from what was an absolutely epic night with Booka Shade at 560.The German duo lived up to expectations and delivered an amazing performance.

Here’s the set DelayNoMore recorded for this special occasion. Enjoy and stay tuned for more appearances to be announced soon for October and November with a couple of great out of town surprises.

The main plan for the Friday of our visit was to hit the Pete Tong pool party at the Surfcomber. For some reason, Pete Tong is not on the top of the “must see DJs” for a lot of Vancouverite’s I know, but personally, I have a lot of respect for this man. Having an early start to DJing in the mid-70s, he has been a key figure in electronic dance music since the 80s, started and hosts one of the most influential dance music radio programs: The Essential Selection (now renamed) since 1991, and is the founder of the legendary dance label FFRR who launched the careers of many, among them Salt’N’Peppa, with “Push It” as the first release. Yes, he may not be your super technical DJ who takes you on a slowly building journey with lots of knob tweaking, but he knows the music better than most, always has the best tracks and definitely knows how to throw and rock a party.

Each year, he hosts his Radio1 party in Miami, and this was on top of the list of events that Ceebas and I wanted to check out. I was extra excited because Ritchie Hawtin, Luciano, Joris Voorn, and Riva Starr were among the headliners. We arrived half an hour later than our ticket’s entry deadline, meaning we had to fork out an extra $30 on top of the $40 price we had already paid for the tickets. By this time we were used to paying through the nose for everything in The Magic City, or more appropriately The Plastic City as it should be called, by the number of scantily clad girls sporting boob jobs we observed everywhere.

By the time we got to the party, we had already missed Joris Voorn, but I was not sad about it, as we got to rock out quite hard to Ceebas’ new Man-crush on Thursday night. We walked in, and were greeted by the sounds of Kaskade who happened to be the surprise guest DJ, and a sea of shaved-chest steroid-enhanced guys accompanying the aforementioned girls. The stage was setup facing away from the pool and towards the ocean, with Go Go dancers setup on either set, providing added eye-candy. I can’t say I am a huge Kaskade fan myself, but the crowd loved what he was dishing out. Lucky for me, we caught the latter part of his set which ended shortly, and made way for the “DJ/nerd who isn’t trying to be cool”: James Zabiela. I must say, the extent of my knowledge about him was that he was another breaky-prog DJ, which is not particularly something that gets me too excited. After seeing him at this show however, I can now say I am a bit of a fan (and so are the dozens of girls who were admiring his smile and golden locks). He connected a bunch of additional gear he had brought for the set and started by playing a few minutes of various ambient style sounds to build things up, utilizing an iPad that he held in the air to add effects to the whole thing. His set continued with a mix of tech-house sounds, combined with his classic break and prog influences.

Next up was the Swiss-Chilean founder of Cadenza records, Luciano, whom we had met the previous day through Carl’s lovely wife, Hagi at the DJ Mag party. Not being very familiar with his work and only hearing him for the first time, Luciano blew me away with his blend of funky latin infused techno beats, reminding me of the set Ricardo Villalobos played when I saw him @ the Cocoon party in Ibiza back in 2008. I think he was hands down my new favourite DJ of this trip, especially with the set he delivered at the Sunday School party the following day.

After Luciano’s set, it was time for our fellow Canuck, Richie Hawtin. I did not recognize him at first, because it had been sometime since he came to Vancouver, and he had grown his hair quite a bit and was is no longer sporting the same ‘do, and also looked to have lost a bit of weight. Richie started with some groovier sounds to ease people into his set, and within a short time, he had the crowd going off to nothing but pure techno, only the way Richie can. I must say, it was awesome to see the aforementioned crowd rock out to techno!

Italian producer, Stefano Miele aka Riva Starr got on next, taking things to a more house influenced direction. My extent of familiarity with Riva Starr’s work was limited to his collaboration with Noze: “I was drunk”, which has been on my friend Dave Dirk’s DJ play list for the last year or so. I would compare his set to what I heard delivered by Joris Voorn the previous night, but Ceebas would beg to differ and one day, he is finally going to make me understand what this groovy bass-line is that differentiates Mr. Voorn. All in all, an enjoyable set, and a great finish to our day. We gathered everyone, including those who had licked the magic frog, and headed for a lovely dinner on the streets of South Beach! Day 4 = EPIC!

Following our big night at Mansion, we woke up mid-afternoon to a beautiful sunny day. After grabbing a healthy lunch at an outdoor patio nearby and realizing that we had managed to sleep all the way to the beginning of happy hour, we made our way back to the apartment and started planning our party itinerary for the night. The DJ Mag pool party at the Shelborne sounded like our best option to start with so we headed from downtown to South Beach around 7 PM. As soon as we stepped out of the cab, we could hear the thumping beats coming from the back of the hotel. Downing the rest of our vodka Red Bulls in hopes of dissipating the last of the previous night’s hangover, we headed for the entrance, got our wristbands and were instantly dropped into a sea of half-naked, drunk twenty-somethings, grinding and fist-pumping to James Zabiela’s music.

His style is definitely unmistakable and long before we could see who was behind the decks, we definitely knew it was him. What other house DJ’s do you hear scratching in the middle of their set or use the effects as much as this guy does? The constant adding of various sounds and effects give his music that distinctive mechanical thumping sound, and the pool-side crowd was eating it right up.

Towards the end of his set, through Farshad’s connections, we found our way back stage into the VIP area where we connected with Carl Craig and his entourage. Having met Carl in Vancouver a few weeks before when he played at Lotus definitely helped make the experience surreal for us as he and his lovely wife introduced us to their close friends: Luciano, Matt (Radioslave) and another Detroit techno legend Stacey Pullen.

After Carl’s set, we were invited to tag along to the Planet-E party next door, at Shore Club, where Carl opened up with some soul for the first hour as a few of us grabbed a bite to eat and mingled before the crowds arrived. As much as we loved hanging out with our newfound friends, this was still only our second night in South Beach, and with that many things happening, we were itching to go out and explore other clubs and parties. Shortly after meeting up with JJ and his sister, who had just arrived form Vancouver, we decided to get a move on.

One artist I really wanted to see this week was Joris Voorn. For the past two years, I have bought most of his releases and I was really anxious to hear what he sound like live. Having turned Farshad into a huge fan himself, to the point where he bought all of his releases on vinyl, he was just as excited to see him as I was. The Rejected showcase featuring Voorn was taking place at Set, another beautifully designed nightclub in the heart of South Beach, so we decided to head that way and check it out.

After a couple rounds of shots and some exploring around the club, we claimed our spot on the dance floor as Joris Voorn was getting ready to play. As soon as he got on, the energy in the club shifted and the vibe became more bouncy, driven by the classic house beats. Over the course of the following hour and a half, he took his set from house to tech-house with a slight diversion into the Double 99 classic speed garage anthem Rip Groove, all the while keeping the constant funky bass line that has become his signature. Overall, I would have to say this was the best DJ set I have heard so far this year and with so much happening this week, I am really happy we managed to catch it.

We left the club around 4:00, made one last quick appearance at the Shore Club where we had the pleasure of meeting Martin Buttrich. From there, we went for some late night eats at Gerry’s diner, where we were served sliced avocados and told to make our own guac, as well as poached eggs that looked like they were boiled in urinal water. Note to self: stick to cheap pizza slices.

So far Miami Music Week has been amazing and I can’t wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us.

Our flights down to Miami were fairly uneventful and we landed just as the sun was setting. A quick cab ride took us downtown and in no time we were sipping champagne with our good friend Celine who is hosting us for the week. The girls wanted to catch up so Farshad and I decided it was going to be a boys night out. Not many people had arrived in Miami yet, since Ultra doesn’t begin until Friday, so the streets were relatively calm and there were not that many good clubbing options. We did, however, want to hit Mansion at some point in the week, and the Calvin Harris-Congorock-Riva Starr and Benny Benassi lineup seemed like a great excuse to pay the legendary club a visit.

Having no idea of the size or type of venue mansion would be, we walked in and made our way through the entrance foyer, flanked by a bar on one side and a majestic stairwell on the other. Making our way to another smaller area, we could hear and see the main room ahead and made our way through the crowd, down a few steps and straight onto the massive dance floor. The setup was quite impressive; originally built as the French Casino in 1936, the interior is reminiscent of an old theatre, with two large bars on each side of the dance floor and a massive balcony area used mostly for bottle service. The visual and light displays were very impressive and the place truly felt like a world-class super club.

Benny Benassi was behind the decks when we arrived and stayed on for the two hours we spent there. True to his style, he played crowd-pleasing hand-in-the-air electro and even sprinkled it with a slight dose of dubstep (what is the world coming to?).

We were really hoping to catch Riva Starr, but two hours of Benny is all we could take so we decided to go explore the area and celebrated the fact that we could still buy Jagr shots and lap dances at 5AM by, well, buying Jagr shots and lap dances at 5AM. Massive hangover ensued.

Ceebas and Abasi of DelayNoMore spent the first weekend of January in Whistler, skiing during the day and working on music at night. While working on track selection for their set at the 1st SiGNAL Niice! ™ party with Tom Middleton (UK) and DJ Pandemonium, they decided to make a mix-down of their own. The result can be heard below!

We have been keeping this track exclusive and playing it over the last couple of months with great feedback, so we thought it was time to share it online with you! Check it out and let us if you like it, and if you would like a copy for yourself to play! Send us an email to delaynomore /at/ redlounge.ca (replace the ‘/at/’ with the ‘@’ symbol before sending).

Enjoy!

-Abasi of DelayNoMore

Kaiserdisco – Amalfino (DelayNoMore Whistler Powder Mix)

They say, the older you get, the faster the time goes. Well, it’s true! I honestly can’t believe where the last four years have gone, and that our beloved SiGNAL Saturdays @ Lotus is now 4 years old! I am honoured to have been able to host/DJ at Vancouver’s underground dance club for all these years, and on a Saturday night for that matter.

This mix was specially created to mark this occasion. Each year for the anniversary, the resident DJs create special mixes that get put together on a double CD. We give out 200 copies of these as part of the celebrations, thanks to our sponsor: The Eatery.

My mix (below) is the second of the first CD, with our newest resident Joseph Martin, doing the first part. DJs Woodhead and Andy Clockwork created the first and second part of the 2nd CD respectively. Being the second part of CD1, my aim was to go for a slightly moodier sound, reflective of the latter part of an evening. As such, you will hear sounds of tech-house, acid-house, electro-tech, and electro-prog variety, by artists like Dave Pezzner, Hardfloor, Cirez D, M.A.N.D.Y. vs. Booka Shade, Popof, and our very own Villi Manilli and their newest remake: “It’s a Sin” (see complete track listing below).

Anyhow, hope you enjoy this mix, and if you got feedback, it is always appreciate!

Farshad and I are both enormous Pet Shop Boys fans, so we figured that one of their tracks seemed like the ideal subject for our first foray into the world of studio work. We hadn’t come across any good remixes of it, figured the legendary local Sin City night could use a remake of “It’s a Sin”, and thought that a stripped down electro-techno crossover would go down perfectly with the crowds sweating it out at underground dancefloors around the world. We had planned to relase this shortly after it got previewed at a few local nights/parties, but my refusal to stop obsessively tinkering meant that we were still tweaking sounds way after the hangover from those party wore off. Hopefully we managed to capture a little black leather and low ceiling in those Cirez D-inspired synth stabs.

Did we totally butcher it? We’d love to hear your feedback. If you’re a DJ, give it some dancefloor love and let us know how it goes over.